Spring mattress



june 10 1924. 1,497,013

F. O. GRAPP SPRING MATTRESS Filed Oct. 19, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 10 1924.

F. o. GRAPP PRING MATTRESS Filed Oct. 19. 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FLOYD OTTO GRAIFP, OF REDWOOD FALL$,

SPRING MATTRESS.

. Application filed October 19, 1922. Serial No. 595,558.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FLoYo O'rro GRAPP,

a. citizen of the United States, residing at Redwood Falls, in the county of Redwood and State of Minnesota, have invented cer-\ tain new and useful Improvements in Spring Mattresses; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of'the invention, such as will en- 1 able others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My. invention has for its object to provide an extremely simple anrl highly eficient spring mattress adapted to be used in various diiferent ways as a substitute for the felted or padded mattresses now in general use, and which spring mattress will be much more flexible and W111 more readily adapt itself to the form of the person lying thereon than any of themattresses now in genis generally desi eral use.

The spring mattress may be used in an uncovered condition or it may be encased in a padded covering, thereby forming what ated as an inter-spring mattress. Preferab y, however, the spring mattress, when not encased, will be covered with a thick flexible pad or very thin felted pad covering. While the improved spring mattress may be supported in many diflerent ways, it will preferably be placed directly on an ordinary fabric bed spring, such as in general commercial use.

This improved spring mattress has various important novel features and characteristics as will hereinafter appear in connection with the description of the drawings forming part of this application.

Referring to the drawings, wherein like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the improved mattress, some of the parts being diagrammatically shown and some being omitted but the general outline of the mattress being indicated by dotted lines;

Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view showing a portion of the mattress, the springs being dia ammatically illustrated;

ig. 3 is a perspective looking downward on a group of interconnected springs of the mattress;

Fig. 4 is a fperspective looking at the sides of a group 0 interconnected springs;

tress springs;

Fig. 6 shows fragments of two of' the springs and a metallic link connecting the bases of said springs;

Fig. 7. is a perspective showing on an enlarged or exaggerated scale a portion of the covered wire from which the springs are made;

Fig. 8 is a transverse section on the line 87-8 of Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 is a bottom plan view showing a portlon of a flexible pad adapted to be used on top of the spring' mattress;

Fig. 10 is a perspective showing one of the several clips used to anchor the pad of F1g. 9 to the mattress springs;

Fig. 11 shows two interconnected -mat tress springs in side elevation and the applied pad in vertical'section;

Fig- 12 is a view corresponding to Fig. 11, but showing the mattress springs encased within a padded casing to constitute an inter-spring mattress; and

Fig. 13 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the manner in which this improved spring mattress may be rolled.

The construction illustrated in Figs. 1 to 8, inclusive, will first be described.

The springs which make up the body of the mattress may take various diflerent forms but, preferably, they are of the form best illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5, by reference to which it will be noted that said springs are coiled or helical springs 14: of increasing diameter toward their tops. In this preferred arrangement, the convolutions of the adjacent springs 14 are interlaced, except at the bottom turns, and the said bottomvturns of adjacent springs are tangentially and directly connected by metallic clips 15 bent around the closely contacting portions and connecting the base of the sprlng mattress in such manner that the springs cannot shift laterally or become displaced, but permitting, nevertheless, the bases of the springs to move sufliciently to adjust themselves to movements of a bed spring on which the mattress is placed or to permit the spring mattress to be rolled up, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 13. Also, the bases of some of the springs that are quite widely separated may beand preferably'are connected in a similar manner by long clips or links 16. These links 16 not onl space the springs but keep the springs om being tilted and caught in the coils of a bed spring or in an underlying pad or fabric where the tea latter is used. At this point, it is portant to note that while the bases of the springs cannot slip and overlap each other, the interlaced tops of the springs may, nevertheless, be forced further together than shown in the drawin .,s and overlapped to such an extent that ro ling of the mattress into the form shown in Flg. 13 may be easily accomplished. Moreover, the spring *nattress may be rolled, as shown in Fig. 3, either on the transverse or longitudinal axis of the mattress. Furthermore, by reference particularly to F1 s. 3 and 4, it will be observed that, normal y, the upper portions of the spring coils are so interlapped that there is clearance between the interlapping portions. This permits any spring or a group of springs to be depressed Without pulling laterally on springs that are not depressed. Otherwise stated, this free interlacing or interlapping of the springs permits the upper spring portion of the mattress to adapt itself to the body of a person lying thereon, without pulling laterally the upper surface of the spring mattress out of normal shape. Moreover, by reference to Figs. 3 and d, it will be noted that the u per ends of the spring coils are alternate or relatively set in dlfierent positions so as to bring the spring ends as far as possible from the points of interlacing of the springs.

lBy reference to Figs. 1 and 2, it will be noted that in one direction, the alternative rows of springs are continuously connected and the intermediate rows of sprin s are spaced and connected by the links 16. @therwise stated, in the said intermediate rows, alternate springs are omitted and the links 16 are applied to span the gaps where the springs are omitted.

Uf course, the above described arrangement may be varied, but, as shown, certain springs are omitted in the longitudinal mar ms of the mattress and the gaps there ormed are spanned by links 16 which, in'

turn, are connected to the adjacent springs of the intermediate rows by short links 16*.

In a spring mattress of this character, it is, of course, evident that some of the springs will be subject to very much greater wei ht than others; for instance, the sprin s tiat support the body from the hips up wi l have to take the heaviest load and those that support the legs will be subjected to very much less load. Hence, as an important feature, llgraduate or vary the tension or stren th of the springs and place the springs of different tension or strength in difi erent zones. For example, see Fig. 1, the springs in the upper rectangular zone marked A will have the greatest strength, the springs in the lower zone marked 18 will have the least strength, and the sprin s in the intermediate zone marked 0 wi have a stren h somewhere between that of the springs in the zones A and Id.

Springs having their metallic surfaces arranged for frictional contact have been found very objectionable because of the noise and squeak that willbe produced every time a spring'is moved. This objectionable feature I have obviated by the use of sprin s encased or covered with a flexible sound-o sorbing coating or jacket 14. preferably a woven fabric saturated with a hardening and lubricating material, such as paradin, The parafi'in applied to fabric not only acts as a lubricant to reduce friction, but very greatly increases the solidity and wearing quality of the fabric jacket'let llt may be here further noted that with the springs freely interlaced as illustrated and described, there is nevcr any severe frictional contact between the coils of the spring, nor, in any case, any direct pull of the one spring on the other. The whole spring mass is so flexible that it will yield and conform to the body and thereby perform all of the functions of an extremely soft and flexible mattress and, at the same time, has such resilience that it will always come back to its dnormal shape when relieved from the loa In Figs. 9, l0 and 11, ll have'illustrated a flexible pad or covering for the spring mattress. This pad 17 is preferably a tufted hair, kapok or cotton pad which is not only flexible but capable of slight stretchin action. At its edges and on its under side, the pad 17 is provided with hook-ended metal clips 18 stitched or otherwise attached and adapted to be hooked over the upper convolutions of the outer edge mattress springs, to thereby detachably hold said pad in position on the spring mattress. This attaching means enables the pad to be readily detached when desired.

In Fig. 12, the spring mattress is shown as encased within a surrounding tufted hair, kapok or cotton casing 19, thereby forming what is generally known as an inter-spring mattress.

ile this improved spring mattress is advisably used on an ordinary commercial bed spring, it may, nevertheless, be otherwise used and the principles of construction involved and claimed may be used in an up bolstering cushion, all of which uses would be within the scope of the term mattress as herein used.

By reference first to Fig. 2 and then to Fig. 1, it will be noted that the enlarged upper portions of the inter-connected springs form a less open 'or more nearly complete bearing surface, because of their overlapping, than do the lower portions of said springs. This feature is also illustrat= ed in Fig. 4.

What ll claim is:

1. A. spring mattress made up of coiled springs of increasing diameter toward cltltl mergers upper ends, their lower ends being tangentially connected and their upper portions being loosely interlaced and capable of free shifting movements, and whereby the upper portions of the spring mattress is given a great flexibility and ad ustability to objects supported thereon, and the base of the spring structure is rigidly connected against lateral movements.

2. A spring mattress made up of coiled springs of increasing diameter toward there upper ends, their lower ends being in direct contact and rigidly connected and their upper portions being loosely interlaced and capable of free shifting movements and whereby the upper portions of the spring mattress is given a great flexibility and adjustability to objects supported thereon, and the base of the spring structure is rigidly connected against lateral movements.

3. A spring mattress made up of connected springs arranged in one direction in alternate continuous and intermediate interrupted rows,.the said continuous and interrupted rows forming rectangular groups of connected springs and the rows of rectangulargroups of springs thus formed being staggered in respect to each other.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

- FLOYD OTTO GRAPP. 

